Trends in Wafer Processing Technology

Reports from the fab

Increasing Uptime of Endura/Centura Tool Sets and Film-Deposition Uniformity.

The User: A thin-film group at a 300mm European fab.

Legacy Robot Teaching Hits Snag

The thin-film group at a European fab needed to reduce the tool and production downtime borne from a time-consuming metrology process that required multiple technicians to vent and dismantle Endura/Centura tool sets and employ manual methods to teach wafer-transfer coordinates to robots. The process took approximately 24 hours.

The legacy robot-teaching method required techs to follow a manual process to set up, maintain and troubleshoot the Endura and Centura tools. The labor-intensive process produced inaccurate measurements in micrometers, misalignments and wafer mishandling in the tools.

The process ultimately reduced the group’s film-deposition uniformity and die yield per wafer due to particle generation, producing wafer scrap, according to Allyn Jackson, customer support manager at CyberOptics Semiconductor.

“The manual teaching process was basically inefficient and had become a significant drag on the productivity of staff, tools and the entire group,” Jackson said. “They were looking to address and correct what was, for them, clearly a flawed process.”  
>> see more

Technically Speaking

Real-Time Vibration Monitoring Optimizes 200mm Equipment Productivity

by Dennis J. Bonciolini, CTO, CyberOptics Semiconductor; article originally appeared in Fab Engineering & Operations

Increased equipment productivity is key for 200mm fabs to realize profitability goals. This is true especially because some products won't be transitioned to 300mm production; therefore, equipment at these 200mm fabs will need to keep running at optimum levels to reduce wafer scrap and achieve maximum yields. It is becoming increasingly imperative that process and equipment engineers be armed with a new set of solutions for monitoring equipment vibration and acceleration that provides a better feedback loop for controlling equipment conditions in order to accelerate yield improvements and to reduce machine downtime.

As the semiconductor industry gears up to support the exploding demands in automotive, consumer and cell phone applications, it is becoming increasingly imperative that tool and process reproducibility be controlled to tolerances never previously required in order to achieve greater yields.  
>> see more

Viewpoint

Industry Leaders Share Their Views on SemiconductorPackagingNews.com

Dennis Bonciolini, CTO/Director of Engineering and Marketing, CyberOptics Semiconductor

At CyberOptics Semiconductor, 2008 was the best year on record for our newest product line of wireless wafer-like sensors, WaferSense®. We saw double-digit growth, year over year, for that line in 2008 and we are hoping that momentum will continue into 2009. >> see more

You are receiving this e-mail because you are a customer or have expressed interest in the products of CyberOptics Semiconductor.
To unsubscribe from future mailings please click here.